Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - REVEALED: Instagram star Alexis Sharkey cause of death

Episode Date: January 20, 2021

Social media star Alexis Sharkey's nude body is found by workers just after Thanksgiving. She spends time with friends and makes plans for the next day but didn't show up for their planned movie day. Now the autopsy reveals Sharkey was strangled.Joining Nancy Grace today: Troy Slaten - Criminal Defense Attorney, Los Angeles California  Dr. Jeff Gardere - Board Certified Clinical Psychologist, Prof of Behavioral Medicine at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine www.drjeffgardere.com, Author: 'The Causes of Autism” @drjeffgardere Joe Scott Morgan - Professor of Forensics Jacksonville State University, Author, "Blood Beneath My Feet" featured on "Poisonous Liaisons" on True Crime Network  Ray Caputo - Lead News Anchor for Orlando's Morning News, 96.5 WDBO Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Breaking news. In the last hours, we learn the cause of death in the death of Insta-influencer Alexis Sharkey. Take a listen to our friends at KHOU. Her mom was adamant from the beginning, telling KHOU in December she believes her 26-year-old daughter was murdered. But I do know it was not an accident. And now we know the truth. The Harris County medical examiner officially ruling her cause of death as strangulation and the manner homicide.

Friend Lauren Norling Martin, who met Sharkey through Monet, the beauty product company they work for, says, I think this news we all kind of knew, but this just made it that much more real. I'm angry and sad all over again, but ready for justice to be served for our friend. This is what we know. The cause of death has been established as homicide. With me, an all-star panel to make sense of it. First of all, out of L.A., veteran trial lawyer Troy Slayton. You can find him at Troy Slayton on Twitter. Dr. Jeff Gardere, renowned clinical psychologist, professor of behavioral medicine at Truro at drjeffgardere.com.

He is the author of The Causes of Autism. With me, death investigator, professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon, and star of a new hit series, Poisonous Liaisons on the True Crime Network, Joseph Scott Morgan. But straight out to lead reporter with WDBO, Ray Caputo. Ray, it's been a long time coming. The cause of death for Alexis Sharkey, just 26 years old, found naked thrown on the side of a Houston suburban road, a very obscure road, I might add. Tell me, when did this come out, and what have we learned so far about the COD cause of death? Well, Nancy, it is labeled a homicide, but this has been a very, very mysterious type of story from the start that nobody knew how this woman died.

But yeah, right now, the cause of death is labeled a homicide. Well, we've got cause of death and manner of death. To you, Joe Scott Morgan, I understand asphyxiation has been mentioned. Explain the difference between cause of death and manner of death. Yeah, well, with cause of death, Nancy, that's the specific causal factor that brings about one's death. Manner of death, there's only five of those. That's literally the classification. Just imagine a gigantic umbrella made up of suicide, homicide, natural accident, undetermined, and the cause will fit beneath that umbrella. And in this case, we have a homicide.

And underneath that, they've listed this cause of death as a strangulation. Now, you know, strangulation is part- Wait, wait, wait. Let's just be clear. Detroit Slate and Criminal Defense Attorney, there's a big difference when you say COD, cause of death, and MOD, manner of death. So the cause of death, as Joe Scott Morgan pointed out, is the actual physical, physiological cause of death. In this case, asphyxiation, manner of death.

For instance, with children, babies, infants, there's positional asphyxiation where they fall asleep in their car seat and their head tilts down. And because of their position, they asphyxiate. That would be more of an accident in many cases. In this case, it's homicide by asphyxiation. Explain from a legal sense what Joe Scott Morgan, what he just said means. It means that somebody put their hands on her neck and squeezed until she was dead. And so that means that there is a person that caused her death. This was not an accident, Nancy. And so whoever did this is at large. You know, I started to correct you, Troy Slayton, but you're absolutely correct.

Because when you said somebody put their hands on her neck, that would indicate a manual strangulation. Very often you will see bruising, redness, marks on the neck. Particular hemorrhaging in the eyes yes uh but when her body was found there was no sign no uh visual sign of cause of death so in my mind that definitely ruled out ligature strangulation with ligatureulation, you have very deep bruising when a ligature like a rope or a pantyhose or something is used to strangle someone. With manual, you may even see bruising that looks like fingertips or scratching. But when you said asphyxiation, I think you're right, Troy Slayton. Joe Scott Morgan, with asphyxiation such as smothering someone, there would not be any markings on the neck. Agree? Disagree?

Yes, I agree. So, we hear asphyxiation. Do you believe, Joe Scott Morgan, manual ligature or suffocation? I think that this is probably going to wind up being a manual strangulation, Nancy. That's just my belief at this point in time. You would have to go some distance to have an individual that was asphyxiated, say, for instance, with a pillow, which is something that's portrayed in movies and that sort of thing all the time. In my experience, when you have someone who dies as a result of asphyxiation, most of

the time it's going to be a very personal. Now, we can rule out, I think at this point, a ligature like a rope or a wire or something like that. Oh, man. Joe Scott, a ligature strangulation. I've had ligature strangulation cases where the neck is

three and a half, four inches in diameter after a very violent ligature strangulation. The neck is actually, I don't even know how that happens. It's strangled so tightly. It's the size of a little more than a grapefruit.

Yeah, the diameter. You see horrible markings on ligature strangulation. And for so many people that came in contact with her body, they're naked on the side of the road, which naked in itself suggests she didn't commit suicide or have an accident on the side of the road alone. But they didn't mention anything about markings on her neck. No, they didn't. And, you know, one of the things you have to think about, Nancy, with this particular case, we've got a vulnerable woman. Obviously, she's completely nude. I don't know what position she was in prior to death. OK, like was she taken out and kind of, you know, had her clothes removed, that sort of thing. She was very vulnerable.

And we don't know physically how vulnerable she is. It doesn't require a tremendous amount of pressure on the neck with bare hands, for instance, to occlude the airway, to stop breathing, and also the uptake of blood to the brain. You can't forget about that in a strangulation. It's not just the cutting off of the airway. It's also this fact that you're going into where the carotid vessels are that supply the oxygenated blood to the brain, and just the slightest bit of pressure for just two to three minutes can cause death. So you're not necessarily going to see anything externally.

Where you might see injuries, though, would be on the backside of the hands of the perpetrator because you'll get claw marks, fingernail marks, that sort of thing many times. And it makes it even more difficult if the perp is coming up to the victim from behind. If the perp is in front of the victim, the victim can kick, can knee somebody in the groin, can do all sorts of self-defense maneuvers. But if the purpose coming up from behind, there's going to be a lot less the victim can do. Hence, a lot less physical evidence left on the body. Straight out to Dr. Jeff Gardier, board certified clinical psychologist, renowned psychologist, professor of behavioral

medicine at Turo. Dr. Jeff, Joe Scott mentioned something that I find very, very important. I've referred to this type of a killing as akin to a stabbing, as in the Jodi Arias case, to a sweetheart murder. Not that there's any love lost, but it's an intimate killing that gives me an idea of who may have done it. Explain why this is unlike a shooting at 30 paces, for instance. Well, first of all, the fact that she was found nude certainly talks about that there was a proximity between herself and whomever the perpetrator may have been. But as tribulation itself, you have to be close. Yes, absolutely. And therefore, this may be most likely someone that she knew.

Remember, this was an influencer, a woman who was extremely smart, but she was also exposed to many different people. And of course, we always look at Nancy through the years that you and I have been together. We look within the inner circle because that's where there is most likely some sort of a dynamic. Guys, we are talking about the breaking news as it relates to Insta-influencer, 26-year-old Alexis Sharkey. Take a listen right now to our friend Stephen Aromo, ABC 13 Houston. Alexis Sharkey disappeared right after Thanksgiving. A city worker then found her body near the Katy Freeway.

But there were no visible wounds, making her cause of death a mystery. It was a city of Houston public service. They were driving by and they saw the feet of a female in the bushes. At the time, police weren't even able to confirm whether she'd been murdered. Living your worst nightmare ever. But from the time Lexi's body was found, friends and family, including her mom, Stacey Robinault, told us they believed Lexi was murdered. And today we learned they were right. I looked at her and I was like, she's petrified.

This girl is scared for her life. The medical examiner determining she was strangled. If the medical examiner says strangled, they're being very exact in their wording. Straight back out to Ray Caputo, lead anchor WDBO. Ray, it's not just simply asphyxiation, which could be any number of modes of killing, ligature, manual, suffocation, even lack of oxygen. Strangulation is a whole another animal. In all my years prosecuting and covering crimes, strangulation, you are looking your victim in the face, typically, as you strangle them. It is mortal combat. They had to find something on her neck, on her body, not just hemorrhaged petechiae in the eyes where the blood vessels pop due to lack of oxygen. You

have to look at that under a microscope to see it. That's done during autopsy, but there had to be something, some evidence regarding her neck, collarbone, or spine to tell them she was in fact strangled. Not smothered, not deprived of oxygen, but strangled. What more do we know? Ray Caputo, lead news anchor, Orlando News WDBO. Ray. Well, Nancy, we know that also the way her body was found, not only was she strangled, she was thrown into bushes like a piece of garbage. And it wasn't until a day later that someone actually found her.

So whoever had done this to her, Nancy, not only strangled her, but clearly just discarded her like a piece of trash. And it's just a crime of hate. You know, it really is to leave her discarded in that manner, like trash on the side of the road, completely naked to be found that way. As a matter of fact, how did the whole thing start? Take a listen to our friends at KHOU-TV 11. Houston police are investigating the death of a woman whose nude body was found on the side of the road. Police say a public works employee discovered the body off Red Hall Lane near I-10 at about 8 o'clock this morning.

They say she had no visible injuries. The medical examiner will determine the cause of death and ID. The victim is described as a white woman in her early 20s. If you know anything about this, you're asked to please call HPD Homicide or Crime Stoppers. Right there. We believe that she was dumped there. It's not as if she were hitchhiking, got picked up, and immediately murdered.

Dumped. Dumped. Alexis Sharkey's autopsy shows the 26-year-old had been strangled dead, her body dumped on the side of a Texas road. Ray Caputo, tell me about the area where she was dumped. Well, this was an area of Houston. It was, I believe it wasn't terribly far from where she's at, Nancy. I don't have that exact detail.

Well, you're right about not being far from her apartment. Not being far from her apartment at all. Let me stop you right there. And that is significant. Troy Slayton, criminal defense attorney, joining me out of LA, veteran trial lawyer. I know you may disagree with me on my comparison, but I know you recall Robert Blake, the famous actor, and his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley, was shot dead sitting in his car, Blake's car. They had been out to an Italian dinner. For some reason that night, as opposed to all other nights,

he went, instead of parking in the open parking spot right by the door in the front, parked in the back in an alley. He walked her to the car and, according to him, came back in because he forgot his gun. Then he says, when he goes back to the car, she's dead. Found in a dumpster, I think about a block away, was the murder weapon. What does that tell me? That tells me the person that killed Bonnie Lee Bakley could not leave the area. They had to dispose of the gun right there on top of where the murder was committed.

Here, go with me, Troy Slayton, we find her body a stone's throw from her apartment. Now, let me just say, according to the husband, 49-year-old Tom Sharkey, she left the apartment. He told her not to drive, having been drinking, and he did not see her again. She left anyway. She went out into the parking lot. Was she going for her car? Was she attacked in the parking lot? I know this. Troy Slayton, her body was found not too far from their apartment.

What does that tell you? It means that it was either somebody that knew her or somebody that was stalking her. She was an Instagram influencer. She had tens of thousands of followers. She was a beautiful young girl. So she had people that would potentially be interested in her that could be from all over the world. But it's not very hard in the age of the internet to find out where

somebody lives. Well, it tells me, I mean, yeah, someone could have seen her online. That's absolutely a possibility. Beautiful, stunning, thousands of followers. But it tells me that whoever that someone was was did their evil business and disposed of the body right there. They didn't take her far away. They didn't hold her hostage in some underground bunker.

They killed her right there. How did she get naked? Where are her clothes? If she were raped right there on the scene, where are her clothes? I mean, Nancy, what? She was confiding in her friends that she was terrified, that she was terrified for her life. She knew that she was in danger.

And for her to go out alone is is just is is frightening unless she was going out to see somebody maybe that she knew. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Breaking news in the case of Insta-inflexis sharky the 26 year old beauty that had instagram fame her body found thrown on the side of an obscure houston area road take a listen to our friend steve campion ktrk tv 13 houston i have no question in the core of my being that there um i just, I mean, there's someone out there that knows what happened. Alexis's mother, Stacey Robino, spoke with me about the devastating loss, saying at the center of her being, she believes her daughter was

murdered. I just, I think they're still trying to piece that together. It's, it's just feel so disjointed. And, and the way she was found, just, I can't, I can't wrap my brain around what happened. And so no, I don't have any, I don't have any good information at all, which is, which is very painful. Guys, you are hearing her mother. Now take a listen to Steve Campion at KTRK-TV 13, our cut two. We know homicide detectives, they're looking at surveillance video of cars going up and down this road near I-10. They're trying to figure out how a body ended up in this brush. Now, it was Saturday morning when a garbage truck driver, he noticed feet coming up from the bushes. He called this into 911.

For those of you just joining us, thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. In the last hours, we learned the COD, cause of death, an Insta influencer, Alexis Sharkey's, now know murder homicide straight back out to Joe Scott Morgan the location where her body was discarded tells me a lot the fact that she was naked and her clothes were not there on the scene completely naked also tells me a lot jump in yeah you know I was thinking just a second ago you and Ray have both used the word several times thrown. I'd agree with that. Let me throw in another adjective here. I'm going to say frenzied. And this is why in in cases where we have bodies that are found kind of sequestered or hidden away. That takes time, Nancy. Whoever did this, remember what they said about the garbage workers.

You know, when they were observing this body initially, they noted that they could literally see feet, feet from the roadway. It's not like they had to go looking for them. This gives me an indication that the individual that did this wanted to get as much distance between them and the body in as short a period of time as possible. This almost sounds like this young woman could have been in the trunk. She could even have been in the front seat. It would have just required the individual to have opened the door to the car or opened the trunk and push her out or drag her out and just drop her there.

Hey, listen, Nancy, Houston's a big place. There's even swamps around Houston. There's wooded areas around Houston. But in this particular case, they chose to go just to the side of the roadway and pull her body out and deposit it there so that just it could be you or I or any of our listeners just driving down the road. And they're literally going to see a body with the feet sticking out. That's how little care was taken in this particular case. You took the word out of my mouth, Joe Scott Morgan. I was about to say carelessly thrown.

But the fact that she was thrown, that she was discarded at another scene, this would be at least a secondary or tertiary crime scene. I don't believe the murder happened there because her clothes are not there. My point is, yes, she was carelessly discarded on the side of the road completely naked, but she was discarded. Typically in a stranger to stranger attack, the attack goes down and the perp runs. They don't take time to move the body from one place to another

and throw it out in high bushes. That doesn't happen. They flee the scene immediately. To Ray Caputo, lead anchor, WDBO. Ray, do we know if a rape kit was performed? I don't know for sure, Nancy, but I have not heard anything about her being raped. And I think that on something like that, we would have heard about before. I don't know. It seems like we would have.

Nancy, I can almost positively guarantee you, based upon what I know about the ME in Houston, this is standard protocol. They would have done a rape kit on her. They would have done hair sampling on her. They're waiting for this to come back. I can almost promise you this. That's what they're looking for further, to further this investigation relative to her. They're waiting on what? The rape kit? They're going to be waiting on the rape kit. Remember, there's problems. There's problems all across the country. Let me ask you a couple of questions. Just brief cross-exam questions. Number one, would they necessarily have released the result from the rape kit, Joe Scott?

No. Okay. So she may have been raped, and we don't know about it yet. And number two, I believe we've been waiting all this time for the COD and MOD because of toxicology issues. In other words, did she OD? That, in my mind, was what we were waiting on. From my experience, correct me if you have a different experience, but from all the cases I've ever tried and investigated,

you get a rape case back pretty quickly. Toxicology takes a lot longer. With a rape case, you do a vaginal, anal swab. You swab the pubic area. You swab the oral cavity, other areas of the body. You can look under a microscope at the slob. You take the Q-tip. You rub it on a piece of glass.

You put it under a microscope, and you see or don't see semen. That easy. Yeah, but what else are they? Yeah, you're absolutely right, and that's very easy to do. and you see or don't see semen. That easy. What else are they? Yeah, you're absolutely right. And that's very easy to do. The spermatozoa can actually be visualized very easily. However, I have to say this, Nancy,

they're taking this instead of what they're doing. If they have a seminal sample on this individual, they're going to be digging deep. They're going to be looking for a DNA match on this. So a DNA match, yes. That is going to take a little bit longer. But still, yes, I agree with you to get a DNA match on a potential perp. That does take longer.

But the rape kit itself to determine whether she had been raped, we would have known that in three days. As a matter of fact, isn't it true, Joseph Scott Morgan, that once you look at the semen under a microscope, depending on the degradation of the semen, you could determine how long ago it was that the rape occurred. For instance, if the sperm is totally intact, it's been within 8, 12, 24 hours. After 24 hours, the tail comes off of the sperm. After longer, the head comes off. So you're looking at degraded sperm.

You can tell how long ago, in certain cases, the rape occurred. Yes, no. Yes, yes, you can. I want you to take a listen to what I believe may be a very significant clue. Now, agree with Joe Scott Morgan. A significant clue would be, is there DNA? And another question, Joe Scott, what types of experiments and tests have they done on her body? Touch of DNA.

What type of experiments and tests have they done on her physical body, Joe Scott? Oh, my gosh. There's any number of things. First off, you can look for hair and skin samples. And think about this, Nancy. Where are you going to look for those on the deceased? Where are you going to look under her fingernails? We'll do what are referred to as nails.

Manual strangulation? Yeah. And her throat. We'll be looking for nail scrapings to see what's underneath those nails. I can probably imagine that since she's a social influencer and the way these people paint up their nails and whatnot, they may have been easily cracked, broken, that sort of thing. You're going to be looking for this sort of thing. And also, as you know, Nancy, I've been present many times when we've actually lifted fingerprints off of bodies by superglue fuming. So they'll be looking at all

of this very carefully. I am fascinated with the superglue fuming process. In a nutshell, explain it. A very, it's, there's not a lot to it. And what what what occurs is that the body will be placed on the autopsy table and we create what looks like a clear tent. OK, a plastic around the body and then a tray, a little container of of super glue is actually placed on a heater. It looks actually like, do you remember the old coffee mug warmers? We can actually use that and heat up the super glue in there. And as the super glue heats up, it actually turns into a fog. It's called fogging. And as it settles back to earth, or as it settles back down, as gravity pulls it down, it comes to rest on the bodies. And then it marries up, the superglue marries up with the oils that are deposited, the fatty lipids that are left behind by the fingerprints onto the body. And that fingerprint, literally, Nancy, is locked in. It is amazing. It's amazing. Particularly with alternative

lighting, what detail you can see. And to you, Troy Slayton, veteran criminal defense attorney joining me out of LA. Troy, another issue is this. If somebody she knows has DNA on her or hair or fibers from one of their outfits, let's just imagine one of those plaid lumberjack shirts. Let's just take that for instance. You can easily match up fiber that may be on her nails, on her body and her hair to that kind of shirt. Got to be careful

because just because there is fiber or hair, that may innocently be on her body. It could be. And obviously anyone that would have normal, lawful contact with her may have her DNA or hair, skin, clothing fibers on them. So that might be completely normal. But what I'm really interested in and what I would want to see as a criminal defense attorney is a full scrubbing of her social media. This is a person who lived their life online and

was with their thousands of followers. That's the type of person who's getting hundreds of messages a day through their Instagram, through their other social media outlets. So I want to know who she was talking with, what kind of messages she was getting, what were the private messages and direct messages that she was getting, because that's what could provide the digital footprint to let us know who was potentially looking at her or after her or threatening her. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. For those of you just joining us,

thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. Many, many legal eagles across the country have been waiting for the toxicology and cause of death results in the case of a 26-year-old Instagram influencer, Alexis Sharkey. So many clues we're looking at carefully in the wake of that announcement, cause of death, homicide by strangulation, there is one clue, one clue we need to take a look at. Take a listen to our cut eight Houston police spokesperson speaking out. How about the nearby businesses that have, where they have a surveillance right now? We are working on surveillance. At this moment, there's one business that does have some. We haven't looked at it yet. We're still gathering information, gathering video.

It hasn't been too long, so we're thinking overnight. Video from a business nearby. Straight back out to WDBO lead anchor Ray Caputo. What can you tell me about that video? I understand there's one car in particular they're looking at. Yeah, Nancy, I don't have the information on the video. I'm sorry, but I do know that there is some information coming from her friend, Nancy, that she was a very scared woman. There's a lot of details as to why she was scared. You know what? You're absolutely right. Take a listen to Our Cut 12, our friends at CrimeOnline.com. I have no question in the core of my being that there's someone out there that knows what happened.

Alexis's mother, Stacey Robineau, spoke with me about the devastating loss, saying at the center of her being, she believes her daughter was murdered. I just, I think they're still trying to piece that together. It's, it's just feels so disjointed. And, and the way she was found, just, I can't, I can't wrap my brain around what happened. And so, no, I don't have any good information at all, which is very painful. Actually, I'm glad you played cut number four.

You were hearing Steve Campion at KTRK-TV 13 discussing now the funeral of Alexis Sharkey, straight back out to Ray Caputo. I understand there was actually a skirmish of sorts over control of Alexis's body. Yeah, Nancy, there was. I mean, it just goes to show you that there's some inflating right now, but it was her mother had tried to get her body, I believe, and that there was all kinds of issues with it, you know, and after somebody dies and all the pain that they're dealing with, it's like they can't even get closure because the story's still ongoing. You know, it's going to be a while before her mom is able to sit down and digest the fact that her daughter's no longer

with her because of all this stuff that's happening right now, it's ridiculous. Let's take another stab at it, Jackie. Let's go to our cut 11. This is Steve Campion, KTRK 13. There's two tales emerging this afternoon about Alexis and Tom Sharkey's marriage. Friends who said it was on the rocks. Her husband who called it strong, telling me Alexis was his life partner and they were not filing for divorce. We've learned the nature of that marriage is now part of HPD's investigation. Detectives working to learn the truth.

Straight out to Jeff Gardier, Dr. Jeff Gardier joining us. He is the professor of behavioral medicine at Truro. Why is it not just in this case, but in every case where a woman goes missing or is found dead, you look at the life partner, boyfriend, live-in, ex-boyfriend, husband first statistically? Because that is the person that it may be an intimate situation and that situation has been caused by the partner, the person they are closest to, the person they have conflicts with. We understand police are looking at surveillance video from a particular business along the road where Alexis' body was found. It's a beauty salon. Sources telling us there was one car spotted on that video.

Now the question is, who was in the car? Straight out to Joe Scott Morgan, professor of forensics at Jacksonville State University, we also know the body was most likely dumped in the dark of night. How much can they really see on that surveillance video? What do you make of it, Joe Scott? Well, if they can enhance the video to some degree, and there's any number of agencies that can do that, particularly at the federal level, but the Texas Rangers can do that as well, Nancy. You know them very well. What do you mean by enhance? Well, enhance is that they can take that image. Remember, you know, all the CCTV videography that you and I have looked at over the years is so very grainy most of the time. A lot of it's going to be dependent upon the quality of the equipment that this particular store has and how much of a time

that they captured that particular image passing before the lens of that camera if they can freeze that and get it to one of these law enforcement agencies they can do electronic digital enhancement of the image and they can actually freeze it kind of frame it out do an outline of it and there's a database that they can run this thing through and try to capture within a reasonable scientific likelihood of what model this car might be. Now, going back to what Dr. Jeff had said- So you think they can at least get the model?

They could probably get at least the model. And if you can pare that down, Dr. Jeff had mentioned something kind of interesting just a few moments ago in the fact that you're going to look at the circle of intimates, and this becomes elementary at this point in time. You look at the circle of intimates, what type of vehicles did these individuals draw upon? What did they use on a regular basis? And then if you can correlate that between the image that you catch on the street with these other vehicles that this people in her circle drove, that's going to narrow this thing down a bit. I mean, you think about it like a triangle. You've got to figure out there's the apartment, the body less than three miles away and question mark, the perp. It is someone that felt they had to discard her body, dump her body from where it was

immediately and quickly. Yeah. And think about this too, Nancy. Remember, even you said that this is kind of an isolated area, even though it's next to I-10, which is a huge, huge artery in our country. This is kind of an isolated area. We have to begin to think as investigators, well, who in the heck's going to even have knowledge of this area? Who's going to know about this? Well, I mean, when you say that, I always go back to Shasta and Dillon Groney in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. I mean, if you look at an aerial, it's nothing but green trees. But there's an interstate and some perv driving down the interstate sees Shasta at an above ground pool from the interstate, goes and lies in wait, takes Shasta and her little brother Dylan, kills the whole rest of the family, also kills Dylan before Shasta is saved. So it does happen where someone's spotted from the interstate.

I don't know how likely that is, but you're absolutely right. That throws a monkey wrench into the whole thing. So we've got video of a vehicle, major. We've got potential sperm, major. We've got potential DNA on her body. Her clothes gone, which tells me a lot about the mind of the killer. Also, take a listen to our cut 14 this is khou11's janelle bluedow alexis met so many of her friends through monae and her many work trips i got that nice that's where she also met lauren she's grown to be such a good friend to me and I just can't believe she's gone.

Lauren says before Houston, Alexis once lived in Midland, Odessa and that's where she met her husband Tom. She says the two moved to Grand Junction, Colorado for about four months in 2019. I know she absolutely loved it and just traveling and being with her friends. You heard that Alexis worked for a company named Manet. At some point, it was alleged Manet was part of a pyramid scheme and that may have had something to do with Alexis' death. Highly unlikely. Right now, police on the case.

We've got a cause of death, a matter of death, but not the killer yet. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.